Contrary to popular belief, it’s actually more profitable to think big but act small. Alex Mandossian explains this concept by telling a story about Warren Buffett’s golf bet with three other billionaires. He segues the moral of the story into explaining the concept of how you do anything is how you do everything. Alex uses his team as an example where he encourages them to not sell at first bat, but instead, collect feedback, objections, and responses. He also touches lightly on the D.E.L.T.A. Sales Process and how it applies to acting and testing small while thinking big. Lastly, Alex explains why failure is an event, not a person.

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Think BIG, But Act Small

This is a show devoted to coaches, consultants, and other service professionals who want to get more premium clients but don’t enjoy the selling process. We believe seeding through storytelling is the new selling. No matter what you believe, nothing in your business can happen until something is sold. Wouldn’t you agree with that? It doesn’t matter what business you’re in. If you hate selling, then this show is for you.

I believe after you’ll read a few episodes, you’ll find out that selling can be fun as long as you know what to say when to say it and how to say it. If this is what you’ve been looking for, then you’re in the right place. This show will teach you how to sell by obliterating the objections that typically lead to personal rejection. More importantly, the anticipation of personal rejection, which is why most people hate to sell.

Buckle up and read carefully. Although ethical influence is central to our discussions, you and I will also explore what I believe to be fascinating and important topics for ethical influencers such as growing your relationship capital and branding strategies. Also, finding great joint venture partners, team building strategies, outsourcing principles, client acquisition tactics, repurposing strategies, million-dollar habits, ninja marketing tips, and that’s naming a few.

In this episode, you’ll learn three key insights, which I believe are critical to making you a highly-skilled ethical influencer. You’ll discover number one, why, how you do anything is how you do everything? Number two, why ethical influencers win by thinking big but acting small? What does that mean? Number three, we’re going to talk about why failure is an event and not a person.

That’s why you test small to win big. This episode could have a significant impact on how you can win the hearts of others with total and absolute certainty and I mean that. If English is your second language over 50% of our readers are from outside of North America. I hope you will plan to read to this and all the other episodes, not once, not twice but three times because nothing will empower the fluency of any language than learning the art and science of ethical influence.

Warren Buffett’s Golf Story

I have no idea if this story is true, but it is about one of my favorite people in investing. He’s well-known and his name is Warren Buffett. I’ll tip my hat to the person who told me the story at one of his workshops in Austin, Texas. Warren Buffett was mentored by a gentleman by the name of Benjamin Graham and he’s what’s called a value investor. In value investing, which is a philosophy of investing. It’s the opposite of speculating, which is high risk.

Value investing is you win by not losing, and it’s a great methodology to take up as an entrepreneur. In other words, you buy low or you take the risk, but it’s calculated. Your risk is low that you win by not losing all the winnings of investments that you’ve had over the years. The story I heard is Warren Buffett is playing golf with three other billionaires before he’s about to drive the golf ball on a three par hole.

I don’t play golf, but in a three par hole, it means to make par, which means you’re getting the ball inside the hole in three strokes. If you get it in two strokes, then that’s called a birdie. If you get it in one stroke, that’s called a hole in one, and that’s the eagle as it’s called in golf that you want.

[bctt tweet=”Stupid in little things is stupid in big things.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

With a three par hole, people have a chance to make a hole in one and people do it a lot more often than you would think. Before Mr. Buffett was leaning back to drive the golf ball, and he wasn’t a good golfer according to him. About the moment he’s about to strike the golf ball, the three other billionaires almost jokingly say, “Warren, let’s make a bet.” Warren stops and says, “What’s the bet?” “Twenty dollars that you won’t make that hole in one.”

He looks at them and the first thing he asks, because he’s a value investor, he said, “What are the odds?” In other words, the odds can’t be one-to-one. If he misses the hole in one, which is difficult to get, then he pays up $20 to the three other billionaires. I don’t know the way he was going to divide up to $20. It wasn’t $20 to each. It was $20 total the way I was told the story. If he makes a hole in one, then they give him $20.

They said, “2,000 to 1.” This means that if he made the hole in one, then 2,000 times $20 is $40,000, but if he doesn’t make the whole in one, then he pays out $20 in total. If he makes it, he gets $40,000 from the billionaires, which they can afford the money and $20 if he doesn’t win the bet, which is getting that hole in one.

He said to himself, “2,000 to 1? I don’t like those odds. The odds of me getting a hole in one are 200,000 to 1. It would take me 200,000 strokes to get a hole in one because I haven’t gotten one ever in my life.” He said, “Let’s make a bet, 200,000 to 1, what do you say?” The billionaires are looking at each other because if you do the math, that’s $4 million. Warren Buffett loses $20 if he misses but if he makes it, he gets $4 million from the billionaires, which is over $1 million each.

They look at him and I would assume that they say something like, “Warren, you are no fun to play golf with because what’s the big deal? That’s $20.” He said something, at least the way I was told the story that marks the difference between a good and great investor. It’s about thinking big $4 million but acting small $20.

Warren said, “I’m not going to make a bet to 2,000 to 1. I’m going to make a bet to 200,000 to 1 because that’s what I think the odd should be. It’s not about the $20 because stupid in little things is stupid in big things.” That is the moral of the story. If you know Warren Buffett’s rules of money, rule number one is don’t lose money.

Notice how it’s not to make more money? Notice how it’s not investing accurately and intelligently? Notice how it does not buy low sell high? Rule number one is don’t lose money. Many people who have studied affirmations or declarations say, “You’re focusing on losing.” No.

You’re focusing on pain of loss. Arguably, he’s the most famous and successful investor of our time. One of the richest people in the world. Rule number two for Warren Buffett is never forget rule number one. Risk is inevitable, but people don’t take calculated risks in business or sales.

[bctt tweet=”Don’t let the heart cloud the head because you’ll get in trouble.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

I believe the loss is optional if you take a calculated risk. I don’t know a lot of people who set aside some critical thinking time or calculating the risk of what they’re doing, whether it’s signing a contract, paying for a copywriter to write copy, or hiring someone. When you are taking a calculated risk, you still can think big. Let’s say you want to build a $10 million company.

What do you do? Do you go and buy a building or do you invest in office space that you’re not going to need right away? Are you going to buy a car so you can show off and show others that you intend to have a $10 million company? That would be stupid because a big thinker acts small in marketing, in sales, in any type of business, doesn’t matter what type of business you’re in. You’re a coach. You’re a consultant, you’re a service professional of some kind.

You can think big all you want but acting small means-testing. It means tracking. That’s the way you manifest wealth and keep it. Rule number one, don’t lose money. Rule number two, never forget rule number one. I promised you, I’d tell you who first told the story where I heard it and it was in a workshop in Austin, Texas. It was my good friend and still is a great friend Keith Cunningham.

I remember because he has a Texas accent that punctuates the whole thing. He said, “Stupid and little things are stupid and big things.” The way that I translate that is think big, but act small. When people say you’re playing small, what does that mean? Does that mean you’re playing small from the beginning or does that mean that you’ve been playing small for a long time? Maybe you haven’t been thinking big enough? I know a lot of big thinkers who act small because if you act big, you may lose a lot of money.

Manifestation Process

That’s not obeying rule number one of the world’s most famous and probably most successful and intelligent investors. The manifestation process we’ve talked about is the first step is about the head and you have a thought. You have an intention, and then it’s about your heart. You have feelings. The intention should have a purpose. What do I want and why do I want this?

The third step is to take action where many people don’t or maybe they take too big of an action after they procrastinated. It’s also a mistake. You don’t take a big action because you’ve lost time. Actions are about the head, heart, and hands. Thoughts, feelings, and actions. Actions in the manifestation process are strategy. What’s your strategy? Whether you’re a yoga instructor or a massage therapist, if you have a gourmet coffee and deli shop.

The strategy to make $100,000 a year is different than the strategy to make $1 million a year. It has to be. You have different staffing. You have different resources. Your thoughts and intentions could be the same. Also, your feelings and your purpose are the same, but your actions, which are your strategy, must be different. In the case of the massage therapist. If you’re making $72 out of $100 net per person, then you’re going to do over 14,000 massages to make $1 million net.

I’ve done the math. I teach it all the time at an event called Guerrilla Business Intensive. I’ve been teaching it over 35 times on six different continents and people love that analogy because they realize it’s the strategy or the how, where they get hooked upon. Thoughts are the what? What’s my intention? That’s about the head. Feelings or the why. That’s the purpose and it’s about the heart. Don’t let the heart cloud the head because you’ll get in trouble.

 

The actions are about the hands and you can have the same thought and same feeling. You take lots of little actions until you’ve proven the concept and then you can get step four, which is the results. The results are about the execution. When are you getting these results and when are you going to do it again? The goal here to think big and act small is testing. The thinking and the feeling big that can still stay there and then you track the result.

If you get a good result, then you act a little bigger and then you test again. If you get a good result, then you act even bigger. If you go to Alexismsbook.com, then you’ll go through a process which is called the Free Book Funnel. It’s where I pay for the shipping and handling, or you pay for the shipping and handling costs, I paid for the book and we get the physical version to you. Along that path, there’s a sequence of upsells and cross-sells, which many people take advantage of.

In buying Facebook ads and getting cold traffic to that page, I’m not testing $1,000 a day. I’m not testing $10,000 a day. We’re starting small. I’m thinking big. I want to make over $1 million a year from that and I won’t make it through selling or giving away free books. I lose money if people get the book for $7.97 in the US and about $15 overseas. I make money from the upsells and potential coaching, which we have set up.

It’s through building a relationship and getting to know what Alexisms is about because everyone has an isms book in them. I don’t test $1,000 a day in Facebook traffic or whatever ads on buying through my ad agency. I’m testing $50 a day and then when the tests are becoming successful because we’re finding the right audiences, we have a good message to market match, then it goes up to a $100, $200, $400, and then $1,000.

If I went big and I went $1,000 or $2,000 a day, then I’d lose all the resources. As Buffett says, “I can afford $1,000 a day in ads not forever and not for a losing cause.” I don’t want to lose money. Rule number one, and I don’t want to forget rule number one, which is rule number two. Don’t forget rule number one. I go back to that Warren Buffett story because stupid in little things is stupid and big things.

Remember that manifestation process. Acting big, if you are enrolling or selling to someone, I know that’s a bad word for many people. If you are a salesperson, which if you’re married, you sold something, if you’re divorced, you sold something. If you had kids, you sold something. If you have a dog or a cat, you sold yourself and you persuaded and influenced yourself that’s what you wanted.

My dog is Mini. She’s half Mexican, half German. She’s a Chihuahua Mini Pinscher. She is my unconditional love who wags her tail and goes everywhere with me except overseas because I can’t take her overseas. She is my emotional support as they say. I take her on a plane and she gets to fly for free. I went small with a dog. I didn’t want a big dog because I didn’t have room for it. I figured a dog should be like palm size poop.

Someone who can come on a plane with me. I thought big. I want the comfort of having a dog. I don’t always have my kids over. I’m a divorced dad. Number two, I want to act small. I want to try having a dog because it’s the first time I’ve had one since my divorce, which was in 2012. I started small and I’m going to stay small. That dog has a big heart. She’s chewing on a raw Hydrite next to me so that she won’t bark at the mail carrier who is going to drop off a letter.

[bctt tweet=”How you do anything is how you do everything.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

She’s always here. She’s with me at work and with me everywhere I go. I acted small and I’m going to stay small with the dog. With salespeople, what they do is they’ll start selling and acting big before they identify the objections. They want to get a sale fast because they’re in a hurry. That’s not the way nature works. An acorn doesn’t turn into a giant oak overnight. A watermelon seed doesn’t turn into a watermelon overnight.

In fact, nature works slowly. You took over 40 weeks if you’re like most people to win the ovarian lottery. You got in and you came out. It took about 40 weeks. My son was 37 weeks. He was a premature birth, but he was healthy. If you’re going to start in any type of sales scenario for your business and you got to sell in your business, I’m sorry, that’s what this show is for because most people hate to sell. This is for you.

Think Big, Act Small

Know that every offer that you make has objections and the sales process does not begin until you get the first objection. Many sales trainers have said that. I believe that. Here’s what I do with the sales teams that I teach. I’m known as an influencer, but I’m not known as a sales trainer but what I do works for, people who hate to sell. When I’m about to begin a new offer of any kind, then I forbid myself from selling.

I forbid my sales team from selling. What do I tell my team? I’m thinking big. Acting big is trying to get that sale. It’s acting arrogant too because you don’t know the feedback you’re going to get. In acting small, I have the thought, I have the feeling and the action I’m taking is no longer making the sale, which is going to cause anxiety and stress because I’m going to fail. We call that rejection and then anticipating that rejection doesn’t feel good even for me.

For the first dozen prospects, I make it clear that I’m not here to close the sale. I’ve forbidden myself to sell them. I say that somewhere inside of the presentation. My goal is to get the key objections from them. If time and money were not an issue, what would be the juiciest objection? What would be the resistance that you have? I write them down.

It’s the same with sales teams. If they sell, I get upset because the first or two weeks is to accumulate all those objections where you can put them in an objection notebook with responses that you’re prepared for some critical thinking and acting time. You’re thinking big and acting small. How you do anything is how you do everything.

Warren Buffett didn’t make a $20 bet. He was only losing $20, but stupid and little things are stupid and big things. Meaning if you don’t tithe meaning giving away a percentage of what you make, let’s say $1 and you’re making $10 a day, if you’re not tithing 10%, you’re not going to tithe the $100,000 when you make $1 million. It won’t happen. How you do anything is how you do everything.

Why an ethical influencer wins by thinking big and acting small is if you’re going to start a new sales process, the first thing you want to do is develop a sales environment that’s safe for the prospect. You want to engage in meaningful dialogue and get key objections. You want to learn what their true objections and predicaments are. You want to be able to come up with stories to overcome and obliterate those objections and then you want to ask for the appropriate commitment.

 

It may not even be the sale. If it’s a high-end sale, a premium sale, it maybe 2 or 3 times. You want to ask for the appropriate commitment, meaning maybe we meet one more time. Maybe you need an executive summary of what I offer. Maybe you need to talk to a few people who’ve gone through my program. That’s not a cop-out. It’s an appropriate commitment.

Always be connecting. Those are the ABC’s and I mentioned that in an episode. Thanks to an author, Jerry Acuff and my mentor, Roy H. Williams, who introduced the book to me, is the DELTA sales process. Develop a safe environment, that’s D. Engage in meaningful dialogue, that’s E. Learn their predicament and challenges, that’s L. Tell stories to obliterate those objections, that’s the T, and then Ask for an appropriate commitment, which typically doesn’t mean closing.

Alexism: Expand Comfort Zones

The Alexism for this episode is wildly successful entrepreneurs do not break through their comfort zones. They expand their comfort zones. That’s a nuance. Expand your comfort zone so that you have more comfort zone to play with. I would never ask you to break through the comfort zone. That’s bad advice. No offense to anyone who’s ever taught that.

I’ve been taught it by people much smarter than I am, but I don’t think you can play to win if you’re going to burst through a comfort zone. Failure is an event. It’s not a person. Zig Ziglar used to say that. If you test small, you’ll win big as your tests get bigger like buying advertising. It’s $10, $20 a day after it starts working, then $50, $100, $200 maybe $500 and you roll out.

I’ve done this for many years, whether it’s television, radio, print advertising, or face-to-face. You don’t want to roll out too fast because that’s acting big. Acting big will make you small because you lose money. Remember, rule number one, don’t lose money. Rule number two, never forget rule number one. Thank you, Warren Buffett.

Here’s a review of the insights that you and I have discovered in this 58th episode. I want you to apply these three distinctions. Number one, how you do anything is how you do everything. I first heard that from my good friend T. Harv Eker, but that’s the epitome of the Warren Buffett golf story. Number two, ethical influencers win by thinking big but acting small.

You can feel big as well but act small until small actions build momentum and then you can have your J hook or hockey stick growth where you’re going straight up. You can only do that by testing, tracking, getting success and building momentum. A failure is an event. It’s not a person you can’t fail. If you’re going after objections, it’ll get you confident.

You’ll get to gather research and information and gather intelligence and then you’ll be in the position to act big because you know how the prospect is wired. These insights will only work for you if you work them. Please make sure you execute what I’ve learned in this episode. I’m doing this for you as a public service. It’s years of mistakes I’ve made of playing big and losing big. Also, the things that I’ve done to succeed.

[bctt tweet=”Wildly successful entrepreneurs do not break through their comfort zones, they expand their comfort zones.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

I’m teaching 25-minute chunks week after week. It’s a great public service and it is my legacy more than writing a book or anything else. If you follow what I’m teaching you, I believe your future will be bigger. It’ll look brighter and you’ll get to create it on your terms. Speaking of reviews, if you’ve already given me a review on iTunes, thank you.

Write your big a-ha moment or your takeaway from this episode on an index card. If you haven’t given me a review on iTunes, then it is the time. Go to AllSellingAside.com/iTunes. That’s my call to action for each episode. Because when you review, it’ll get the truth out there and it’ll show iTunes that, “Someone cares about this.” Not a review in general, it’s a review on what you specifically learned from a specific episode, whether it’s this one or another one.

Don’t give me a review, give me your a-ha moment. It doesn’t say a-ha moment in iTunes, it says review section. Pretend like it says a-ha or big takeaway. It’ll mean much to me. More importantly, it’ll mean much to others when they find it. Once you do that, iTunes will ask you to rate this episode. I hope I’ve earned five stars. From my heart to yours. If you don’t feel I’ve earned five stars, don’t review this episode.

Go to another one, read it. Once I’ve earned five stars, rate that one. That’ll mean a lot to me. That’s not a trick. That’s a request. I hope you’ll do that for me, will you? I’m asking you, it’ll take 3 minutes out of your day, but what you declare publicly could provide you and others reading that review a valuable learning lesson. I’m going to finish with one final gift in honor of this 58th episode.

It’s my complimentary, which means free for you eCourse. There are four different videos there. It’ll teach you how to identify your market more specifically. It’ll teach you how to create a message that I hope is irresistible and it’ll show you how to capitalize on the most lucrative media sources available. Media is changing. It’s not the same as it was for many years. I hope you go to MarketingOnlineMentor.com and get it.

With flaws and all, I deliberately did not edit my flaws. I’m doing this from my heart to yours. What’s the big deal? It’s a human error, you get to know it. Why not? I hope our paths cross again. This is the show dedicated to making you an ethical influencer on your terms and brings more certainty into your life.

Please do whatever it takes to join me because the topic is called The Platinum Rule of Sales, not the Golden Rule. I encourage you to invite a friend, a colleague, a study friend, invite someone. Maybe you can do it because it’s easier to learn with someone else and you can have an accountability partner or a study friend. I can’t wait to connect with you. It’ll be a super fun episode. I want you to join us with your study friend. I’ll speak to you then.

Links and Resources:

• Keith Cunningham
• Alexismsbook.com
• Jerry Acuff
• Roy H. Williams
• AllSellingAside.com/iTunes
• MarketingOnlineMentor.com